Background on the Honey and the Mountain Gorilla Project We have been working with Steve Demkowski, Happy Hollow Zoo Resident Beekeeper, for several years. He teaches a year-long beekeeping workshop and also teaches the local 4-H kids beekeeping at the History Park. We heard about a group of women in the DRC that sold honey to help protect the gorillas – and thought, “Hey, we can do that too!”
When the kids from the 4-H heard about the project they wanted to donate their honey to the gorillas as well!

In 2006 Happy Hollow Park & Zoo established a commitment to work with a group of Park Rangers in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The Park Rangers are the frontline of protection for the last remaining populations of Mountain Gorillas in Virunga National Park. Park Rangers are pitted against well-armed professional poachers hunting for ivory and bushmeat, and bands of rebel insurgents. Over the last several years, over 140 Rangers have died in the line of duty. When we first began working with the Rangers in 2006 they were poorly supplied and paid (sadly, they hadn't been paid a salary in over nine years) - yet they continued to do their best to defend the Virunga National Park, home to the highly endangered Mountain Gorillas.

The world’s remaining mountain gorillas (approximately 880) live in three countries spanning four national parks—Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (Uganda), Mgahinga Gorilla National Park (Uganda), Volcanoes National Park (Rwanda) , and Virunga National Park (Democratic Republic of Congo).

Happy Hollow Staff, with our nonprofit partner Happy Hollow Foundation, is committed to providing support for these Rangers.

Over the last ten years, through various fundraisers, we have:

Provided salaries for Rangers who had not been paid in almost 10 years, yet continued to perform their incredibly dangerous job

Purchased Ranger uniforms and boots for protection out on patrol

Improved the water sanitation system at Bukima patrol post in the gorilla sector, which houses 17 guards and uses a 20-year-old well in which the water was filthy.

Provided tents and rations for patrols

Restocked the pharmacy at the park headquarters, which serves the Rangers and their families.

Last year we sent funds to help toward the purchase of a surveillance plane. Surveillance is becoming increasingly important as the pressures on the park and on the Rangers increase. It's impossible to manage a park as big and as complicated as Virunga without adequate aerial support for surveillance, medical evacuations and for logistics. Of course, the primary purpose is to get law enforcement teams in place rapidly when poachers are located.

In 2012, we were asked by the Rangers to support the widows of the men who have lost their lives while serving. Although one might think a ranger’s biggest fear is death, what most rangers fear most is that their widows and orphaned children will be abandoned and left destitute in a society that cannot care for them.